Eighties Brit Jazz Revival

To a certain extent I rebought this album on cd for nostalgic reasons regarding a certain period and people in my life but it still holds up pretty well as music. The disk is Working Week - Working Nights by the band Working Week. A jazz fusion combo, the nucleus of Working Week was sax and flute player Larry Stabbins, guitarist Simon Booth and vocalist Julie ( now calling herself Juliet ) Roberts. But for this album they surrounded themselves with a big band of eighties British jazz luminaries with striking solo contributions from Guy Barker and Harry Beckett on trumpets and Annie Whitehead on trombone to supplement Stabbins's sax and flute. There's quite a heavy latin influence throughout and very strong songs both lyrically and melodically. Standouts are Solo and Sweet Nothing but the showstopper for me is the magnificent I Thought I'd Never See You Again, with evocative words, big brassy arrangement with a Spanish tinge and a blistering trumpet solo from Barker. There's a long final track, Stella Marina, featuring poet Jalal. This could be looked upon as early rap but has more in common with sixties black US outfit the Last Poets. The only dud is the cover of Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues with a squirm enducing rap from Julie Roberts.